selvaraja somiah’s twisted thoughts

Me, just an ordinary Penangite who spent a good part of my learning life in North Borneo and Kathmandu. I’m a geologist turned freelance writer who’s joining the blog sphere now. What I post are my general views, my ramblings, and opinions of my thoughts of what is happening in my country. You are welcome to write your comments, but seditious and racial remarks will be deleted. I am no big writer but will try my best to provide my thoughts with my simple English. I welcome suggestions and opinions on my blog so that it can be improved further for the benefit of all.

Venkatraman Ramakrishnan becomes the ninth person of Indian origin to win the coveted Nobel Prize in Chemistry for 2009.

Dr. Venkatraman Ramakrishnan, 57, who was born in Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, India, is the senior scientist and group leader at the Structural Studies Division of the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. An American now, Dr. V Ramakrishnan won the 2009 Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for atom-by-atom mapping of the protein-making factories within cells.

Rabindranath Tagore was the first Indian to win the Nobel Prize, when he was honoured for his contribution to literature in 1913.

Renowned physicist C.V. Raman was conferred the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1930 for his work on the scattering of light and for the discovery of the effect named after him.

Hargobind Khorana won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1968 for his interpretation of the genetic code and its function in protein synthesis. He shared the Prize with Robert Holley and Marshall Nirenberg. Born in Raipur in 1922, he migrated to England in 1949 from where he moved on to the U.S. and settled there.

Subramanyan Chandrasekhar won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1983 for his theoretical studies of the physical processes of importance to the structure and evolution of stars. He shared the prize with William Fowler. He was born in Lahore in 1910 and joined the University of Chicago in 1937.

Peace prize Mother Teresa won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 for her work in the slums of Calcutta (now Kolkata) through the Missionaries of Charity, an organisation founded by her. She was born in Skopje (then in Turkey) in 1910 and came to India in 1931.

In 1998, the Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to Amartya Sen.

In 2001 Literature Prize went to V.S. Naipaul.

In 2007, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, chaired by R.K. Pachauri, shared the Nobel Peace Prize with the former U.S Vice-President and environment activist Al Gore.

In 1989, Dalai Lama, who has been living in exile in India since 1959, got the Nobel Peace Prize.